The Stanton Heights Neighborhood Association has received funding from Councilwoman Deb Gross to place signage for the Stanton Heights neighborhood on Stanton Ave. at the beginning of Sunnyside Elementary School property sometime this year. Volunteers are need to help plant trees donated by the Pittsburgh Shade Tree Commission to provide backdrop for this signage. Please join us, and share this invitation with your neighbors!

Although Saturday started off a bit chilly (did someone mention the s-n-o-w word?), it warmed up quickly as volunteers hit the streets and the dirt to remove litter, invasive species, and illegal dumping from Stanton Heights. What did we accomplish on Saturday? Clean-up organizer extraordinaire, Mike Sturges, has compiled the following update. THANK YOU Mike Sturges for all that you do to make Stanton Heights a beautiful place to call home!

Volunteers: We had 38 volunteers for the event. Thanks so much to the residents of Stanton Heights for your commitment.

Clean up statistics: The clean up focused on the Stanton and Woodbine greenspace as litter pick ups on Woodbine St., Coleridge St., Hawthorne St., Azure St. and Christopher St. The numbers are as follows:

250 pounds of scrap metal,

100 pounds of mixed debris,

4 tires, 60 bags of garbage, and

4 bags of invasive species (japanese knotweed).

All of this debris was left on the intersection of Stanton and Woodbine for DPW to pick up this week. We were also able to remove 10 buckets of garlic mustard which will be composted. In addition to this, we were able to move 2 tons of concrete from the Stanton and Woodbine greenspace to be recycled. These stats add to the accomplishments of the last two years with a total of 300 vines, 164 bags of garbage, 64 bags of invasive plants removed, 50 tires, 1.25 tons of scrap, 2.4 tons of mixed unbagged debris and 24 tons of concrete from this site and surrounding streets
A special thanks to the volunteers who helped plant in and weed the flower bed!

We removed less litter and illegally dumped items but this is because we did such a good job removing it the last three years and we have not had a lot of return dumping except for a few hundred pounds of concrete and landscaping debris. If we continue to steward this space we should continue to see a decrease in illegal dumping. Thanks to past efforts, there was noticeably less garlic mustard and Japanese knotweed on the site than the last two years.

Stanton Heights resident Barry Werber took photos of the event, which can be viewed here.

Future directions:Tree Planting Saturday 5/2/15 The Stanton Heights Neighborhood Association has received funding from Councilwoman Deb Gross to place signage for the Stanton Heights neighborhood on Stanton Ave. at the beginning of Sunnyside Elementary School property sometime this year. Please join us as we plant trees donated by the Pittsburgh Shade Tree Commission to provide backdrop for this signage. Please join us at 8:00 am at Sunnyside Elementary school, and share this invitation with your neighbors!

Urban Ecostewards: A group of Urban EcoSteward volunteers has been working on this greenspace for the last two years to remove illegally dumped items and invasive species. Beverly Stennett, Jennifer Sturges, Trillium Reynolds and her sons should all be applauded for their efforts working up to this clean up. Let us know if you would like to join this group of volunteers in the future.

Staying on top of future dumping: To all Stanton Heights residents, we could really use your help with keeping an eye on future dumping. We need to be vigilant and need to move dumped materials out of the property ASAP so that people realize that we are a community that will not look the other way anymore.

Community Composting program: This clean up marks the third anniversary of the Stanton Heights Community Composting Program. It is estimated in the year of 2014 that this compost heap has prevented over 40 yards of landscaping debris from being dumped in other locations, which, at other points, has attracted dumping of other forms like concrete and tires—that’s over 20 pick up trucks full of landscaping debris that has been recycled responsibly and sustainably. The compost from this program continues to be available for local residents. The Stanton Heights Community Composting program continues to funnel landscaping debris and yard waste to prevent dumping in other sites and provides community members with compost to use in their yards.

Thank you Stanton Heights Neighborhood Association for donating lunch for the volunteers and Pesaros Pizza for the discount. Thank you Allegheny CleanWays for the supplies and support. Thank you PWSA for donating water for the event. Thank you Giant Eagle, Einstein Bros Bagels, Lawrenceville ShopnSave, and Paddy Cake Bakery for donating donuts, bagels and coffee for the event. Thank you, Mike Rizk for allowing us to use your truck for the event again this year. Thank you Jim Heinrich for helping to plan the event, Mary Fischerkeller for working to get donations for food and Anna Marie Caffardo for helping to set up. Thank you to everyone else who I did not mention.

The next Stanton Heights Neighborhood Association meeting will be held Wednesday, January 15th from 6:30 – 8:00 pm at Sunnyside Elementary. This month we have invited both council representatives from District 7 (Deb Gross) and District 9 (Ricky Burgess) to join us for an informal discussion. The meeting will be structured similar to the old District 7 “council-to-go” sessions where residents are encouraged to bring their questions to our representatives.

Please join us!

Save the date:

March 5: Last year’s infamous Fish Fry returns! More details on ordering your dinner to come.

March 19th: SHNA Community Meeting featuring a Fire Safety Presentation from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire. 6:30 pm at Sunnyside.